by Bob Schmidt

Created on: June 01, 2007

Almost 1/3 of this year's professional baseball season is history, and the Milwaukee Brewers are leading the National League's Central Division. While the team has 29 wins at this moment, Francisco Cordero has earned a "save" in 18 of those wins. His pitching performance is the most important number statistically to the success of his club this season. Since the starting pitchers average just under 6 innings of work per start, his success at closing out close games is critical to their hopes of continuing to lead their division.

There is a certain "magic" that touches a team when a player becomes as dominating as Cordero this year. He has allowed only one earned run in over 18 innings of work so far, which translates to a microscopic earned run average of only 0.43. By baseball standards, that is almost obscene. Opposing batters are averaging less than .100, a number so low that hitters having to face him must feel defeated before they enter the batter's box. In short, Francisco Cordero has been nothing short of amazing so far this season. He is striking out more than 13 batters per 9 innings pitched, which is indicative of his domination with his power pitches.

Since the Milwaukee baseball fans have had little to cheer about in recent seasons, Cordero is even more important to them than he would be on a team within a bigger market. He is one of only 3 or 4 stars on the team. Most of the roster is composed of young, and unproven players, with a dose of journeyman types. Cordero means more to Milwaukee than statistics can even demonstrate when you consider that the viability of the franchise in that city leans so heavily upon him.

A lot of things can change over the course of a season, and this start of Cordero's will be extremely difficult to match over the remainder of the season. You never know when a guy may go into a funk, or sustain an injury. On the plus side of that equation, Cordero has not logged a lot of innings of work so far this year, so he is relatively fresh. Providing that his team can manage a lead into the 8th, or 9th inning, his "lights out" style of pitching will be fun to watch over the rest of the season.

For the Milwaukee Brewers, and for Francisco Cordero, this might just be "their year". Every season has a few surprises built into it, and so far, this is the biggest pleasant surprise on the baseball horizon. So far, we are witnessing something happening that is good within major league baseball, a great success story. It sure beats some of the other stories dominating professional sports. How pleasant is that?

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